Genly Ai, the book's narrator, is pretty sexist and arrogant. He is repulsed and confused by the way gender works on the planet. He observes what he sees like an anthropologist from an "enlightened" Earth society, comparing their folkways to his own and finding them insufficient. The other Hainish Cycle books make it pretty clear that the Ekumen is not a utopia, and Genly's faith in it is naive. By the end, Genly has a deeper understanding of Gethenian society, contrasted with his earlier arrogance.